GAME TWO: GHOSTBUSTERS (1987)

INFORMATION:
Publisher/Developer:  Sega/Activision
Format: Cartridge
Game Size: 128K
Rarity:  2
Game Type: Action Business Minigame.
Region: USA
Other Ways to Play: Commodore 64, NES, PC Fan Remake, Atari 800 series, Apple II, Amstrad CPC, MSX, PC Booter, Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum
Power Base Convertor Playable?: Yes, 6 Button Pad Capable.

PERSONAL DATA:
Price I Paid: Don't remember, got it like 6-10 years ago on Ebay.
Price I Would Pay: 12 Bucks US
Condition: Game, Manual, Case
Game Rating: GOOD
My History:  Played C64 edition in the mid 80s, got this port within the last 10 years sometime.

(First 5 shots are on an actual SMS.)

 (Title Screen, including the Ghostbusters theme song with bouncing ball lyrics.)

 (Selecting your fly hooptie.)

(Multiple ugly little spuds.)

 (Stay Puft is here too.  Go in from the right side unlike in between his legs in the C64 version.)

(Code if you want to play with more money next game.)

(Next six shots are Genesis with Power Base Convertor.)

 (If you want to be Ghostbusters Stig you obviously aren't doing it on the first playthrough!)

 (David Crane built this city on Z80 and 6502 code.)

 (No matter what car you get you always see the iconic Hearse.)

 (Now the roads have things to kill you and take time and money.  Least now you can see how far you have to go.  This city is HUGE.)

 (Until Stay Puft smooshes part of it.  Luckily two button control fixes that a bit eh?)

 (Climbing the tower as three of the four ghost types take my Ghostbuster down.)

(Contents)

  In Ghostbusters you take control of a new franchise to protect a city from ghosts and make fat stacks of cash in the process.  Starting with 10,000 dollars you buy a vehicle to drive through the city to catch ghosts roaming on the roads and in buildings, eventually avoiding the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and then climbing a ghost infested skyscraper to shoot Gozer to win the game, where you can then repeat the process over and over again.  

 Provided you have enough money to pay back the bank of course.

  A conversion of the original microcomputer version, this is a major improvement in almost every way over the C64 original, outside of no digitzed speech and the lack of glorious SID chip music.  Where in the original the driving scene was basically a pointless waste of time outside of sucking up ghosts to slow the timer's countdown to the end game (more time: more money to make), this remake includes a distance meter to show you how far you have to go, cars and other obstacles to avoid, and the ghosts you catch now provide the player with additional money alongside actual buildings on the side of the road.

(Remaining screenshots are from an emulator.)

(Sadly your gear isn't shown on your car at all in this version.  Of course now your ride doesn't take up 70% of the screen either...)

  Unlike the original roaming about the city map has more of a purpose than merely trying to run over ghosts to stop them so you can capture them on the car minigame and trying to stop the dreaded MARSHMALLOW ALERT for money.

(With a two button controller you can actually catch almost every Marshmallow Attack in time.)

  Now the Keymaster and Gatekeeper walking over you causes you to lose money as you drive on your route to red blinking ghost sites, HQ (to replenish traps, downed 'Busters, and recharge your Proton Packs.), and the Shop which allows you to buy all sorts of equipment during the mission, most of which are either from the computer original or are super upgrades of the classic gear.

(And like most Ghostbusters games, Winston stays home apparently.)

But the main "meat" of the game is the same as the original: getting to a red blinking block and catching the ghosts there.  

 (Setting up the trap.)

  Where in the original the two 'Busters would try to trap a single ghost with angled beams trapping the normally hard to see critter without running out of beam charge or crossing the streams, this version has the beams going straight up, about halfway up the building provided you have the team members flush to the wall.

 (And there are now multiple ghosts to deal with.)

  You then as always activate your packs and use the beams to herd the handful of ghost sprites (more than one this time, though it seems to just be green or yellow varieties as opposed to just Slimer types in the original) above the trap where you open it, and a catch bubble shoots up and down, hopefully catching them all.  Unless you have some of the special equipment even if one ghost isn't caught it will slime one of your three 'Busters, meaning losing another one requires a trip back to HQ, wasting valuable busting time.

   Unlike the slow moving digital counter in the original, this version uses three colored bars at the top of the screen going blue, yellow, and red where at each level more and more is happening faster and faster, doing a great job of simulating the original movie as the supernatural activity got more and more intense throughout the running time.

  Should you keep things under control and use the equipment you buy to keep your ghost hunting shenanigans in top shape as long as you have more money than you started with you go to the three final mini games, two of which are new to this version.

 (DAMMIT RAY!)

  Once you get two 'Busters past a giant bouncing Marshmallow Man, you then have to take your three men up the building, shooting ghosts who will reappear after a number of seconds, helpfully blinking in to let you know they are arriving.  You can shoot your Proton Pack at a 45 degree angle or straight ahead depending on which button you press.  With four types of ghosts who naturally can float through the floors you will be kept on your toes trying to get to the top.  Some float lazily towards you, some bounce in an arc, others throw plates you can avoid or shoot.  

  Provided at least one guy gets up the building, the final minigame activates:

 (Somebody didn't check their spelling...)

  You then shoot your beams at Gozer, avoiding his/her shots and random fireballs from the Devil Dogs.  Do enough damage with a single 'Buster (Gozer's life bar regenerates if a 'Buster gets taken out.) and you have not only won the game, but you get an extra bonus.

(And a slightly different set of scrolling text.)

  Graphically the game is excellent for the time with very little flicker.  Everything is nice looking and has a ton of extra colors compared to the mostly single colored sprites of the original or NES version.  The music and sound aren't too bad, with the movie's theme playing throughout most but not the entirety of the game which keeps it from getting quite as much on one's nerves as the original.

  It is just a FUN little game that is well worth your time now and then.  Sadly, the game's content is rather limited so once all the mini games have been mastered and a player has tried out all the various gear he or she can buy there is very little reason to keep playing.

  It is about 3-5 hours of actual game content all things considered, and even less if you play in an emulator and savescum to master the final three mini games instead of going through the rest of the game as intended.  (And this means trying to make more and more money becomes moot, which is a fun part of it all.)

Master System Play:  Overall the SMS video output isn't too rough on this game overall.  It controls fairly well with the Control Pad but pretty poorly with the Control Stick.  The Epyx 500XJ was damn solid for it.

  So its really GOOD.  It isn't remotely as bad as most reviews make it out to be, though I say a major reason for this is the NES version being so infamously terrible. (Sad fact of electronic gaming is most people think Nintendo is the Alpha and Omega of games and nothing else existed or mattered until maybe the Genesis but not really until the Playstation.) The SMS port is fantastic and outside of the fan made modern era remake probably the greatest version of the game.  I loved the C64 edition as a kid and outside of the music the SMS port is basically the same game only after a six pack of Red Bull.  Sure it is a pile of mostly disparate mini games that are bog simple to play but combined they really work and feel like you are running a Ghostbusters franchise.  You won't be playing it for hours a day or anything but it is like a cup of tea or cider for me.  Just a comforting blanket of pleasurable nostalgia you will come back to for an hour or so every now and then.  When mass hysteria strikes I think we know who to call.  (Hint: It involves playing this game.)

Next Review:  Continuing with the games I have never played before voting options I gave Something Awful and the #retrochat channel on SYNIRC, we will be covering BLACK BELT.

So join me in November for FIGHTIN MAN MONTH!! (Also starring VIGILANTE.)

Mid October Collection Update Plus Bonus GAMES I WANT MOST/LEAST

Yes I have gotten in a ton of new games because last week was a virtual no bill week and I had a decent paycheck.  (As is my wont I tend to pay extra on bills with installment plans to save a few charges in the long run, and I just don't like having bills on my mind so I pay em ASAP.)

( I think Cyborg Hunter is also on the way to my house but I got so many games from Ebay and Enduro Racer at the mall I kind of forget.  This means I have too many games and should slow down for a while!)

I haven't had time to properly inspect them or qtip clean the contacts yet but this is a lot of SMS heat for less than 10 bucks shipped a cart complete.  (I think Columns might have been a whopping 11.50 OH GOD MY WALLET.)

This should bring me to 41 SMS games, 38 US titles/releases.

I need about 20 more games to have hit the halfway point.  Then I am hitting the DEEP CUTS really.  Or pointlessly infamous shit like the GREAT SPORTS series.

Might as well have a quick TOP 10 that I want first in no real order:

1: Psycho Fox: Apparently its kind of Decap Attack 0 but with a Japanese spirit animal shtick.  I don't much like DA and avoided this in the day due to a bad review in VG&CE but it seems to be highly regarded nowadays.

2: Alex Kidd in Miracle World:  I loved the Genesis game so why not play the original?

3: Alex Kidd in Shinobi World: Its SD SHINOBI basically.  SMS Shinobi is extremely my jam even if Mandala is abusively unfair in that port.

4: Donald Duck in the Lucky Dime Caper: Donald Duck is best classic Disney character next to Unca Scrooge.  Castle of Illusion on the SMS is one of the best mascot platformers PERIOD.  Course I want it!

5: Transbot: I wanted this one as a kid.  OMG YOU PLAY A TRANSFORMING ROBOT.  

6: RC Grand Prix: Maybe it is the SMS answer to RC Pro Am without Rare's usual UK styled LETS MAKE IT TOO HARD TO BE FUN nonsense in the later stages?

7: Wonder Boy 3: Well its an amazing game and the Turbografx version price is full absurdity as is that entire damn system at this point outside of JRPGs nobody can read anyhow.

8: Aerial Assault: Side scrolling SHMUP.  I likes me a good SHMUP.

9: Bomber Raid: Top down SHMUP with a NOT SR 71 on the cover.  In spite of the actual game having a prop plane.  If G LOC can have an F16 on the cover while the in game plane is a NOT F14 I guess Bomber Raid can do it too, right?

10: Astro Warrior: A plain and simple top down SHMUP when you want to get your Xevious type game on.

And for laughs the 10 Games I Dread Wasting Money On also in no real order:

1: Great Baseball:  Great series is infamous for sucking.  (Repeat for next pile of games.)  I generally hate Baseball outside of Baseball Stars and Super Baseball 2020.

2: Great Basketball: Great series.  I hate Basketball even more than Baseball.  Except for NBA Jam.  

3: Great Football: Great series.  Plus I already have Madden 91, 02, NFL 2K5, NFL Blitz 2000.  I pretty much have all the Handegg any one needs.

4: Great Golf: Great series.  I loves me some video golf but this Great series supposedly is nothing but arse on a cart.  And with Links 2002 on the PC I have the best video golf.

5: Great Ice Hockey: Great series.  Plus I just got NHL 95 on the Genesis for 2 bucks and can get 97 for the same price.  All one needs.

6: Great Soccer: Great series.  I have a 2002 FIFA game on the Gamecube, the Wii Mario Strikers, and for retro soccer Sensible World of Soccer in this PC fan mod port so you can have online leagues n stuff.

7: Great Volleyball: Great series.  Plus I have Beach Spikers on the Gamecube which is best Volleyball video game ever.  Plus you can have Phantasy Star 2's Nei and Space Channel 5's Ulala in bikinis playing vball and being vaguely lesbian but not fanservicey levels of such.  And no boobie physics like DOA Volleyball.  Which makes me glad it never got a sequel given how Full Creeper Japan's nerd stuff output seems to be going. :(

8: Sports Pad Football: Hey its another sucky sports game!  And one that requires a controller that apparently sucks!  Maybe the controller will be better through a USB dongle and I can have a nice trackball for MAME and stuff?  (No probably.)

9: Golden Axe: Turning a common but totally awesome game on the Genesis port into an inferior SMS version is not good mojo.  Sure its a technical achievement but my wallet disagrees.  Also you can only play as Axe Battler and thus no Tyris Flare and her derriere. Or a drunk dwarf.  SHAMEFUL.

10: Alex Kidd in High Tech World: Hey let's take a bad Japanese riff on Sierra Adventure games and turn it to Alex Kidd instead of a Princess!  All the cheap deaths of a Sierra game except through a Japanese lens!  WEEE I AM SO EXCITED TO SPEND MONEY ON THIS ONE!  (At least most of the Great series are sub 5 dollar titles.  Most Alex Kidd games are 20 bucks plus.  Missing out on a big ass latte and giving a tip is one thing for the collection.  Dropping a Jackson plus aint so hot.)

So now I should have almost enough games to review for 2 years before I need to worry about running out of games to cover.  Hopefully I can have the collection complete well before the review queue runs out but you know how it is.  Enthusiasm, cash, real life, time concerns.. these things do matter.

Welcome to My Dumb Project! Part 1: Sega Memories and WHY AM I DOING THIS STUPID THING?

 Hello!  This is the introductory post as to what this blog is about, why I am doing it, and all that rubbish.  Let's get started!

  It honestly goes back to Summer 1985 if I recall. Or 1986.  Close enough. As sometimes happened, my father would take me up to Riverside Amusement Park in Agawam Mass.  As would also happen, he would go and play Skee Ball in the Arcade while I played as many arcade games as I could.  As a kid this was really my only opportunity to see or experience a lot of arcade games unless Sudsy Sammy's (a local laundromat that would eventually go out of business when it was discovered it's main purpose was apparently to sell drugs), or a department store would have a game or two to play in the front.  Or a restaurant. Most of y'all know.

  Well this was the year Nintendo those Donkey Kong guys would have their VS System games taking center stage and I would see Super Mario Brothers and Hogan's Alley for the first time.

  Having only recently gotten an Atari 2600 in Christmas 1984 as a ten year old my little mind was blown by these games.  And being in a region that got New York and New Jersey stations on cable at the time alongside Boston ones I had already started seeing ads for the Nintendo Entertainment System on TV only months after finally getting my own games console.

  Well for Christmas 1986 I was basically on the way out with toys, having to leave my beloved Transformers behind due to parental and peer pressure.  (Getting insulted on your birthday by your mother who allowed you to pick the toys out will sort of do that to you.)

  So this NES thing sounds awesome since HOLY CRAP I PLAYED THESE AT THE RIVERSIDE ARCADE!!!  And you know, WPIX 11 having advertised the thing for a good year or so now.  Nobody else I knew had one or had even talked about it.  I was on the forefront as I tend to be.

(And I am notoriously unreligious about consumer products.  I like to try out and experience as much neat and cool stuff as I financially can.  My brand loyalty lasts as long as the company does right and something cooler doesn't come along.  And then I enjoy them BOTH.  My Gobots, Robotech, Transformers, and Starriors all rocked out together no problems.)

  And thus I was getting an NES that year.  Sadly I would be playing it on a crappy 8-9" black and white VHF/UHF screw TV.  It.. wasn't working properly on it.  It was getting a snowy picture and whatnot.  Probably nothing at all was wrong with it, but back to Toys R Us it would go.  And they had no more machines to sell.  I was asked if I wanted the Master System instead.  Tearfully I declined as at least at this time Sega wasn't on my radar as a maker of the hottest arcade games, and honestly their early game library wasn't something to write home about at all.

(Plus my set had a ROBOT IN IT.  And I got Super Mario Brothers as a separate pickup.  The pack in to the Master System kind of underwhelmed, you know?)

  A while later a replacement NES would come in and keep me mostly entertained for a year.  Till I got the legendary Commodore 64c the next year, turning me into a lifelong RPG and Wargame geek such as I am.  Deep and compelling games the NES couldn't do.  But the NES generally had superior action titles.

  Thanks to the general rampant piracy of the 8 bit days I would actually get my first experiences with a number of newer Sega games.  And for Eighth Grade Graduation Trip we went to Rocky Point Amusement Park in Rhode Island and I would put 75 cents of 1988 money into the sit down moving seat version of Thunder Blade.

  Between it and some of the C64 ports I was starting to become fond of this here Sega company, not really knowing they were behind a few early 80s arcade classics too.

  Well once Nintendo brought back the videogame industry with an oppressive iron fist game magazines followed.  And not just propaganda magazines like Nintendo Power.  The independent magazines of the time started talking about the next wave of systems in mid 1989.

  And for Christmas of 1989 my Sophmore ass would get the Sega Genesis.  With an ARCADE HIT PACK IN (that I had never played but it was OMG ALTERED BEAST and looked awesome) and Sega it was the clear choice over the Turbografx 16 which would eventually fail miserably in the face of Sega and Nintendo battling it out.

This Gamasutra article explains a lot.

  Well I was entranced.  When you compared Super Thunder Blade, Altered Beast, and Last Battle to anything the other computers or consoles were putting out there was NO CONTEST.  Only my friend Dave's Turbografx came close and that is mostly because Splatterhouse is such an amazing and fantastic game.  Of course the more recent NES converts really disliked me for switching over to the point they would give me dirty looks when I mentioned it.  Seriously.

(Brand whores are idiots.  Consumer products are not religion.  I'm not fond of religion anyhow and even less when stuff made to separate you from your money is your object of blind devotion.  You can like Thing just don't... liiiiiike Thing.  Otherwise you end up like the Bronies.  Don't do that. )

  Well that year renting such classics as Ghouls n Ghosts and Golden Axe would tide me over as games were hard to get and expensive especially compared to C64 games that would honestly engage me for longer periods of time.

  But then THE GAME happened.  A game that would entrance me like few others.  A game whose company in the coming decades would do little more than constantly and repeatedly break my heart.

Phantasy Star 2.

 While not perfect as any JRPG generally isn't, the game would utterly blow my mind and completely consume the week after my Sixteenth birthday which was also the start of Summer Vacation.  Yeah later on Final Fantasy would come out and be pretty fun for a week, but Phantasy Star 2 was SPECIAL.

  The graphics.  The music.  The gorgeously for the time animated combat.  The fantastic looking monsters and heroes.  The Sci Fi setting which I hadn't seen much of in RPGs since Ultima 1 started me on the road to Loserdom back in early 1988.  And the story with it's utterly bleak ending.  (Also to HELL with Aeris from Final Fantasy 7.  We lost a far more interesting and compelling heroine in Phantasy Star 2 in 1990.  Hell, a huge percentage of FF7's story elements were in PS2.)

  I WAS HOOKED.

  And there was a prequel on the Master System?  Well I had borrowed my cousin's Power Base Convertor for a while but it wasn't mine and Maze Hunter 3d and Monopoly didn't exactly wow, especially without the glasses or any instructions that may have turned said game 2d.

  So my  Junior or Senior year I would choose to get a used Master System and hopefully get Phantasy Star.  Sadly the place I got mine didn't have a copy of the game but I did get Mickey Mouse & the Castle of Illusion which really impressed me in spite of me not being a fan of Disney or the Mascot Platformer genre.  And Y's: The Vanished Omens gave me a pretty decent RPG fix and that final High School Christmas had most Master System titles at 15-20 bucks so I got a lot of the tastier titles I could get at the time.  (By Christmas 1991 the C64 was basically DOA in the USA.  I could see the writing on the wall back in my Freshman year but it kept getting worse and worse here in the States.)

While I hadn't made a mistake going the NES and C64 route I feel like I had missed out on a lot of great games.  I had let a good company trying hard down.  Not as much of a let down as they would do to me over the following decades mind you but.. I DID WRONG MAN.

(I would eventually get Phantasy Star but whenever I review that game I can cover my memories then.)

Luckily unlike other systems I never sold off any of my Sega games nor did I take them with me in the Navy meaning my collection only grew, albeit super slowly over the years, mostly when Ebay got going.

So now we are up to date.

SO WHY DO THIS THING?  WHY DO YOU WANT A FULL SET OF GAMES?

Well.. WHY NOT?  I have a pretty decent collection already:

(Not shown: Black Belt)

  And most games are cheap, generally fun and nice looking outside of the "Great" Sports titles and there are only around 111 games.  With the machine's success in Europe and Brazil plus no real lockout or PAL/NTSC difficulties in most cases there are plenty of fantastic and inexpensive games to play!  Plus with the quality plastic cases it isn't too hard to get boxed copies.

  If a game is hard to get in the US, it is pretty much common in the UK or Australia and shipping is my only issue.

  So money permitting I am gonna see how close I can get to a complete list of US released games, though I may have a foreign release of it if it is cheaper and easier to get a hold of.  

  The hunt is FUN.  And having been a kid basically picked on and abused my whole life, I have always appreciated the underdog and the Master System in specific and Sega in general have always been the scrappy bum punching meat.

Sega was one of the few good memories I had in High School.

It is a project I can probably complete in a year or two.  

And since I love to talk and share things plus want to get value for these silly wastes of time, space, and money, I am going to review them all and share my thoughts with you!

THE MADNESS BEGINS!'

Shall we see where it takes us?

Jumping Right In! GAME ONE: GHOST HOUSE (1986)

(For those jumping in chronologically the FAQ/Mission Statement/Info to Blog Project Post will be the one following this.)

INFORMATION:
Publisher/Developer:  Sega
Format: Sega Card
Game Size: 32K
Rarity:  3
Game Type: 2d Action Platformer
Region: USA
Other Ways to Play: NONE KNOWN AS OF THIS WRITING.
Power Base Convertor Playable?: Yes, 6 Button Pad Capable.

PERSONAL DATA:
Price I Paid: 12.95
Price I Would Pay: 7.50 Bucks US
Condition: Game, Manual, Case, Promotional Poster
Game Rating: OK
My History:  Never played before.

(Title Screen)

(Box/Media Photo)

(Kega Fusion Screenshot: Here I am avoiding flame throwing Goatsce Monster and seeing a nice health and score booster on the top level.)

 (Master System play.  Pause doesn't want to work for some reason on my unit so enjoy monsters in motion I guess.  I think the ghost is quite popular.)

(SMS Screenshot From Commodore 1084 Monitor: Here we are in the bottom level of the round avoiding fire.  There is the usual SMS color bleed but it isn't actually too bad in this game. )

(Genesis With Power Base Convertor on 1084 Monitor: I have punched five Draculas in the face and now the exit is glowing above.  Note the casket in front of me.)

 (I have used the key here in palette shifted Round 2 and the Dracula is in his not larger than normal Bat bat form for a couple seconds.  Just above me where I can't do anything about it.  Round 2 also adds in Mummies to fight.)

(Jump at the candelabras and then jump again to land on the sword for extra reach for a couple of swings at the monsters.  Jump into the cobwebs and have to wiggle out.  Jump into the overhead lamp and stun the nasties for a minute.  Enter the doors to pop out elsewhere.)

  In Ghost House you play Mick who is apparently an Elf and has to retrieve the FAMILY JEWELS (durr hurr!) from Count Dracula's crappy mansion.  You do this by punching monsters until you get a key which can open up one of the five coffins on each horizontally scrolling/vertical flick screen round.  You then punch or stab the Dracula to get his gem and a full life bar heal and hopefully avoid him punching you down a ladder to the other levels so you have to fight him again where he will try to do so again.  In between turning to a big ass bat and taking away your life bar bit by bit.  Once you do this five times an exit will appear and you can enter to the next round where there will be a new layout but the same basic graphics, though sometimes with a new monster and palette changes.

 Control is fairly decent, with Mick capable of jumping, stabbing, ducking, and climbing up and down the ladders the nasty monsters will try to hit you down.  Environmental hazards like spider webs you have to wiggle your way out of if you jump into them, fire pits to damage you, barely concealed false floors to fall down, and arrows firing at you help to impede your progress alongside the monsters.  (On an emulator the false floors are generally easily spotted.)  About half the monsters in the game cause knockback and the aforementioned ladder fall down thing which can be irritating as all get out.

 The audio is ok with a couple of musical tunes based on what is going on.  However a couple of the monsters make some REALLY annoying sounds, all but begging you to murder them just to quiet things down.  Sound also helps to let you know when you are actually hurting things as opposed to just the graphics.

 Sadly the manual is full of adorably bad art and doesn't inform you of a lot of important things.  Like how you can jump on most monsters to defeat them.  Nor does it inform you how to get the sword.  (Jump at a candelabra and then jump on top of the sword as it shoots at you.  You can also do this on arrows to get bonus points.)  It doesn't really mention you can sometimes crawl through false walls or that you can press UP at doorways to be teleported to a different section of the castle layout, both of which are kind of essential to get to all five coffins.  Nor does it mention that said sword only has a limited number of hits on monsters before you have to grab another one.

 It does helpfully explain that you get bonus lives at 50,000 and 150,000 points and gives you the score values for six rounds, five monsters, and the treasures (which are question marks).

 So what do I think?  Well in my usual hour or so of playing I was initially irritated because the manual doesn't exactly explain ANYTHING much at all.  But a bit of putzing around I figured most of it out without having to go watch a video on Youtube or whatever.

 Once I got the hang of it I started having fun and will play it more.  If you like games of a VERY old school early 80s computer/arcade 2d platformer you should have some fun with it.  Obviously it is only 32K of data so it isn't the most audiovisually advanced game ever, and the lack of continues, passwords, and annoying monsters cheesing you down to the lower screen levels among other life draining antics will cause a bit of frustration as you learn to memorize the rounds and figure out where to go and what order.

Master System Play:  The graphics required me to turn the brightness up a bit, but overall the SMS video output isn't too rough on this game overall.  It controls fairly well with the Control Pad and the Control Stick, and this was the first time I ever played a game using said Left Button Stick!

So its really just OK.  It isn't as bad as I recall most reviews make it out to be, but it is certainly nothing special.  But if you like more early 80s styled games you might want to give it a shot.

Next Review:  Continuing with the games I have never played before voting options I gave Something Awful and the #retrochat channel on SYNIRC, we will be covering BLACK BELT.

EDIT:  Actually no.  Next review will be GHOSTBUSTERS since it is October.  Next month will be 2D FIGHTAN MAN MONTH starring BLACK BELT and VIGILANTE!